The question with Yan Gomes is will he get back to around a .250 batting average? We have no worries about defense behind the plate and if we can get a .250 average from Gomes and Perez then we should have one of the best catching tandems in baseball. do you think moving Gomes down to the 8 or 9 hole would help them?
Clevinger also looks bigger and stronger as well. If everything goes well we won't see him a whole lot this season, but it will be almost impossible to keep him out of the rotation in 2018 if he has another good season.
Garner and Armstrong are two guys competing for that last spot, both also have options left, so even if they do not win it out of camp, we may see them up once in awhile during the season as well.
Diaz, Allen and Zimmer being our future OF is looking very likely. If Zimmer can show he can hit for contact, do you trade Chisenhall before the 2018 season so Zimmer can get everyday at bats in RF up here? Allen I think will end up the better CF, he almost reminds me of a Lofton going forward.
Nellie has a lot to prove this season, if he can hit for better contact while cutting down on his SOs this season, he could make the ball club in 2018, since Santana will likely be gone.
I know is is earlier to be projecting this, but if Brantley has a bad 2017, our 2018 lineup could be CF Allen, 2B Kipnis, SS Lindor, DH Encarncion, RF Zimmer, 3B Ramirez, LF Diaz, 1B Rodriguez, C Gomes with bench being Gonzalez, Perez, Naquin, Guyer. Either way that is a really bright future for this ball club I feel. (ps. could do Kipnis first and Diaz second in the order as well, while Allen bats 9)